...if it's not that raises even more questions and I already had too many! Look! Behold, a Leareth unconscious on the ground in the forest. Also registers the same to arts.

:...The latter seems hard to fake. Where did you find him: 

:My transit spell didn't drop me where I was trying to go - this could have been a random accident or a flaw in the spell, but it worked to get me back into Velgarth afterwards so the former's more likely, I just ought to check before I try again. I landed in a place that was or bore a striking resemblance to Utumno, the fortress wherein Melkor used to torture people, and didn't exactly want to stick around and double check and see if Melkor was home or what, so I just grabbed him and brought him here and knocked him out because sometimes people who go through Utumno murder a bunch of people once they're out and since he's a mage he could explode. Unless he is instead some sort of impostor. I don't have a clue what's going on here.

:It would be difficult to fool my Sight with an imposter. Where are you now?: 

Random bit of forest. Didn't want to put him anywhere populated or obvious and didn't have long to think of a place. Looks like so.

:Roughly where on a map? I do not think I know the place, but Leareth could raise a Gate to it from that plus a bearing. I think he should not come through, in case it is some sort of very weird trap: 

Tadri passed through here, I knew how to aim for it when I was spying on him weeks ago. So somewhere between Haven and where Tadri's Gate was raised.

:I think that is enough. If it fails we can Gate someone to where Tadri's Gate was, and find you from there. Do you want me to come now: 

If that's convenient on your end, but if it's not I can sleep out here, get some mana back, Sayshen can stay up and wake me if this guy twitches? I've slept outdoors before. ...in Valinor, admittedly.

:This seems important. I can be there but possibly not for a candlemark or two: 

Should I wait up or nap for mana?

:If napping and being woken still helps, probably nap? I can Mindtouch you when I arrive - or the Companion, if she is still with you...?: 

I did not leave her in Utumno. She's here.

:All right. Get some rest, I will be there soon: 

Bella summarizes this conversation for Sayshen and then, lacking superior pillow options, sits down next to her and leans on her and puts herself to sleep.

A little over a candlemark later, Sayshen nudges her awake with a Mindtouch. :Sorry. He hasn't moved. Nayoki's headed our way: 

It's okay, I wasn't actually that tired per se. She stretches and gets up and brushes leaves off herself.

:Bella? I apologize for taking longer, Leareth wished to do the Gate to a distance away: 

Thirty seconds later, Nayoki emerges from the trees, riding an ordinary dun-coloured gelding along the trail. She dismounts. "Anything change?" 

"Sayshen says he hasn't moved. I have some mana again, not a ton."

"Is it going to wake him if I Mindtouch him to look?" 

"I don't think so but I can keep an eye on it, I'm good on arts. I can also heal him now, he looks kinda... I don't know if that's useful for figuring out what's going on and it's not like it's hurting him right now but I can."

"If you are not worried about needing the mana more later, that seems good. He looks terrible." 

Nayoki squats down on the forest floor beside Leareth, who up close is quite noticeably not her Leareth. "He is older," she says, baffled. "I might say by fifteen years, or more even." 

And she rests her hand on his forehead and closes her eyes. 

...And then makes an undignified squawking noise. 

Bella was running through possible other things she might need the mana for and was about to heal him and is brought up short. "What?"

"I am almost certain this is Leareth, or a different Leareth, but it is hard to tell for sure because - his mind... I am not even sure how to describe it. It is very horrible." 

"Uh, I'm reluctant to look too closely myself for all the usual reasons, although I guess of excuses to do so anyway 'his past self says it's fine' is relatively defensible if he'd like a second pair of eyes?"